21 March 2007
Dom José Vieira Alvernaz
Dear D. Maria Guiomar Lima,
I trust you will bear with me writing this in English because I am not
proficient to that extent in the Portuguese language.
I had understood that you were wanting a write-up on the revered
Patriarch-Archbishop of Goa and Damão, Dom José Vieira Alvernaz. I had
started writing this some time ago but failed to complete it and am
therefore resuming. I regret the delay.
There has been a page-length article on Dom José Vieira Alvernaz written in
English in The Examiner, official weekly of the Archdiocese of Bombay after
his death in 1986 by Mons. Carmo da Silva, former Rector of the Rachol
Seminary, Goa, but I would not be able to access it at the present juncture.
I am an engineer, 73 years of age, born in Poona and I have worked in Bombay
and used to visit Goa frequently in the Portuguese period, even during the
Indian blockade between 1955 and 1961. I come from Ucassaim, Bardez, and my
late grand-uncle, Cónego Bruno Menezes, was Administrator of the Convent of
S. Cajetan, Old Goa, and a member of the Sé Cathedral Chapter. What I write
is in the nature of anecdotes as a result of experiences and interactions
with the revered patriarch but it is not a continuous story. I am not
waiting for more details to emerge but I am sending you what is already in
memory.
Dom José Vieira Alvernaz was Bishop of Cochin, a padroado diocese suffragan
to Goa till 1951. Traditionally the Portuguese Padroado extended to British
India in a number of ways and the legacy continued after Indian independence
on the 15th. August 1947. When Portugal and India established diplomatic
relations while India was still a dominion under the British Crown, one of
the first things India did was to request Portugal to terminate her
patronage over the Catholic Church in parts of Indian territory: areas of
the Archdiocese of Goa and Damão which extended well into Indian territory
around Goa, its suffragan sees of Cochin and Mylapore, certain other sees
where the right of nomination of the ordinary required the assent of the
President of Portugal, the Archdiocese of Bombay where the archbishop had to
alternate between a Portuguese and a British citizen, and an exempted church
in Poona (within the geographical bounds of the Diocese of Poona) which was
directly under the Archdiocese of Goa and Damão. The ordinary of the
Archdiocese of Goa and Damão was His Excellency, Dom José da Costa Nunes.
The Portuguese government explained to the Indian government that most of
these adjustments would take time because of the involvement of the Vatican
and also because the shrinkage in jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Goa and
Damão would impinge his dignity and would require him to be re-located by
the Vatican to another analagous position of equal rank and dignity.
Keeping in mind that the change would be inevitable in order to concede the
request of the Indian government, the Vatican transferred Dom José Vieira
Alvernaz, Bishop of Cochin, to Goa in 1951 as Co-adjutor to the Archbishop
of Goa and Damão and Patriarch of the East Indies with the right of
succession. On the 25th. November 1952 the Exposition of the remains of St.
Francis Xavier opened in Old Goa and the delegate of the Holy See was His
Eminence, Manuel Cardinal Gonçalves Cerejeira, Patriarch of Lisbon. the Holy
See had already taken the first steps to diminish the Padroado in Indian
territory as follows:
1. Bishop Guerreiro of the Diocese of Mylapore was transferred to the
Diocese of Nampula in Moçambique as bishop and Mylapore was integrated into
the Archdiocese of Madras which, henceforward, was known as the Archdiocese
of Madras-Mylapore;
2. The Diocese of Cochin was divided into the Dioceses of Cochin and Allepy
and Indian candidates were nominated for the first time by the Propaganda
Fide without the approval of the Government of Portugal.
On 3rd. December 1952, within the Basilica of Bom Jesu, in Old Goa, Cardinal
Gonçalves Cerejeira consecrated the new Bishops of Cochin and Allepy
assisted by Patriarch Dom José da Costa Nunes and Co-adjutor Archbishop Dom
José Vieira Alvernaz. In September 1953 Dom José da Costa Nunes was named
Vice-Chamberlain of the Holy See with base at Rome and with effect from 16
September 1953 Dom José Vieira Alvernaz was appointed Metropolitan
Archbishop of Goa and Damão, Titular Archbishop of Cranganore, Primate of
the East and Patriarch of the East Indies. With effect from that date of
change, the Ratnagiri-Malvan-Sindudurg strip of the Archdiocese of Goa and
Damão and the exempted Church of the Immaculate Conception in Poona were
merged into the Diocese of Poona.
Concurrently the Indian territory Belgaum-Karwar area of the Archdiocese of
Goa and Damão was constituted into a new Diocese of Belgaum and in that city
the first incumbent, Bishop Michael Rodrigues, was consecrated by His
Eminence, Valerian Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, assisted by the
Patriarch-Archbishop of Goa and Damão, Dom José Vieira Alvernaz and the
Bishop of Poona, Msgr. Andrew D'Souza.
When Dom José Vieira Alvernaz had succeeded to the See of Goa and Damão the
Indian government had already started posturing itself into an aggressive
mode on the Portuguese territories: on the 11th. June, India closed down its
Legation in Lisbon. From the 30th. October 1953 European officials of the
Portuguese government were required to hold permits/visae to transit between
Damão and the enclaves od Dadra and Nagar Aveli. The same latter
requirements were applied to Indian officials of the Portuguese government
from February 1954. From April 1954 the transit of arms and ammunition from
Damão to the two enclaves was prohibited. Finally Dadra and Nagar Aveli were
assaulted and seized by members of the Bombay State Reserve Police on the
22nd July and the 2nd. August 1954 respectively. Seeing the storm coming,
Dom José Alvernaz paid a pastoral visit to Dadra and Nagar Aveli in end
September - October 1953 and, as a zealous missionary that he was, he
baptized some 70 Adivasi tribals there, all of whom continued practising
Roman Catholics as I was told be a priest when I visited Canoel in Nagar
Aveli in January 1983.
In Cochin, and then in Goa, Dom José Alvernaz kept with him his trusted
priest-friend from Açores, Pe. José Maria das Neves. He toned up the
apostolate in Goa by frequent unannounced visits to parishes; when I was in
Goa in 1956 I once encountered him in the ferry boat from Pangim to Betim in
a jeep with a packet of sandwiches and a bottle of water on one of these
visits. As a result the Goan clergy used to be always in cassock after Holy
Mass and used to retire for a brief rest only after lunch. The Patriarch is
known to have updated the system of maintaining parish accounts in the
parishes. When the Indian Union started to threaten Portuguese India in 1954
with unarmed invaders to stir up trouble, Dom José Alvernaz led a massive
pilgrimage from Pangim to Old Goa to implore the intercession of St. Francis
Xavier.
Dom José Vieira Alvernaz was consecrator of the Right Reverend Dom Altino
Ribeiro de Santana, Bishop of Sá da Bandeira, on 23 October 1955 and
Co-consecrator of the Right Reverend Dom José Filipe do Carmo Colaço, Bishop
of São Tiago, Cabo Verde, on 27 October 1956, both ceremonies having taken
place in the Cathedral in Old Goa with General Paulo Benard Guedes, Governor
General of the Portuguese State of India in attendance.
In about June 1957 Dom José Vieira Alvernaz was travelling in a car in
Portugal which met with a serious accident and the Patriarch suffered
multiple fractures and had to be hospitalised for five months. When he
recouped and returned to Goa in November 1957, as soon as the aircraft
touched Dabolim Airport, bells in all the churches started to peal and
crowds thronged the roads to welcome him back.
In May 1960 the World Court pronounced judgement of the Rights of Passage
Case filed by Portugal on 22 December 1955 on the sequestration of Dadra and
Nagar Aveli by the Indian Union through the Special Reserve Police of the
then Bombay State; the judgement was ambiguous but Dom José Alvernaz
immediately applied to the Indian government for a transit permit to pay a
pastoral visit to the enclaves but never received a reply.
In September 1961 Dom José Alvernaz left Goa for a considerable period for
unknown reasons and in his absence, on 25 November 1961, the Holy See
announced the appointment od Dom José Pedro da Silva, Titular Bishop of
Tiava and Auxiliary to the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon as Auxiliary to the
Archbishop of Goa and Damão and Patriarch of the East Indies. But on that
same date the Indian Union started to mass its troops on the borders of
Portuguese India for a full fledged invasion. The appointed auxiliary never
reached Goa but Dom José Alvernaz rushed back to be with his people in a
time of crisis and on 14 December 1961 he led a pilgrimage of intercession
from Pangim to the Basilica of Bom Jesú in Old Goa. The invasion of Goa,
Damão and Diu began in the early hours of the morning on 18 December 1961
and was completed by 5.00 pm the following day. The position of the
Patriarch thereafter was precarious and he did come in for criticism of the
Indian occupation authorities for having refrained from attending the Indian
public observances of Republic Day on 26 January 1962 and Independence Day
on 15 August 1962. In April 1962 the diocesan seminary in Cochin was
completed and the Bishop of Cochin invited Dom José Alvernaz to perform the
opening which he graciously did.
End September 1962 Dom José Vieira Alvernaz left Goa for good and spent two
nights in the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier in Colaba, Bombay, till then
still the private chapel of the Archbishop of Goa.. Mons. Gregorio Magno
Antão, Chancellor of the Archdiocese, came to Bombay in advance to prepare
for the Patriarch's departure and in accordance with protocol Archbishop's
House, Bombay, was informed. But His Eminence, Valerian Cardinal Gracias
did not have the courtesy either to send a priest to the airport to receive
the Patriarch or to invite him for a meal. The Patriarch, in turn, kept his
dignity and stayed away from Archbishop's House. After the Patriarch had
departed Cardinal Gracias came in for severe criticism in The Goa Times, a
Konkani weekly of Bombay, for his lack of courtesy to the Patriarch.
End November 1963 the 73 year-old Mons. Francisco da Piedade Rebelo, Vicar
General of the Archdiocese of Goa and Damão, was named by the Holy See as
Titular Bishop of Tipasa and Auxiliary to the Patriarch-Archbishop of Goa
and Damão and was consecrated on 21 December 1963 by His Excellency, Dr.
James Robert Knox, Apostolic Pro Nuncio in Delhi, in the Cathedral in Old
Goa. Two years later Mons. Rebelo was named Apostolic Administrator (Sede
Plena) and in 1967 Mons. Raul Nicolau Gonsalves was appointed Titular Bishop
of Rapido and Auxiliary to the Apostolic Administrator of Goa and Damão. The
latter succeeded as Apostolic Administrator (Sede Plena) in 1972. Following
the signing of the Peace Treaty between India and Portugal on 31 December
1974 Dom José Vieira Alvernaz tendered his resignation. The same was
accepted with effect from 22 September 1975 while concurrently the suffragan
sees of Macau and Dili were de-linked, and Mons. Raul Gonsalves was named
Apostolic Administrator (Sede Vacante) and held that position till he was
appointed Archbishop of Goa and Damão, Primate of the East and Patriarch of
the East Indies in January 1978.
In his exile after his departure from Goa Dom José Vieira Alvernaz lived a
quiet life at his home at Rua de Santa Lucia 11, Angra do Heroismo, Ilha da
Terceira, Açores till he passed away on 13 March 1986. He was the 31st.
Portuguese Archbishop of Goa and the fifth to hold the title of Patriarch of
the East Indies (ad honorem). I had the privilege of spending three days
with the Patriarch at his home in Angra do Heroismo, 28 November till 1
December 1969, while in transit from New York to Lisbon.
I may be using the same material in my memoirs.
Yours sincerely
John Menezes
7 Esperança,
S. Bhagatsingh Road,
Mumbai 400 001, India;
Tel: 00-91-22-2202-5249
